By Maria Saporta
The Metro Atlanta Chamber has selected its new chief economic development officer.
“This should not come as a surprise,” said Hala Moddelmog, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. “He was right under our nose.”
The new chief development officer will be Brian McGowan, who joined the Atlanta Chamber as its chief operating officer and executive vice president after serving as president of the City of Atlanta’s economic development arm — Invest Atlanta.
By Maria Saporta
A passionate 11th hour effort is being launched to urge the Clayton County Commission to support putting a full penny MARTA sales tax on the November ballot.
The five Clayton Commissioners are scheduled to vote on Tuesday night.
The choice is being presented in relatively simple terms. If Clayton County approves a full penny, it would become a full voting member of MARTA, and it would be able to have a combination of rail and bus transit in its future.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 27, 2014
The Piedmont Park Conservancy board has selected Mark Banta as its new president and CEO to run the 25-year-old organization starting July 1.
Banta, who has been serving as the Conservancy’s chief operating officer since January, spent 16 years (from 1996 to 2012) as the general manager of Centennial Olympic Park.
By Maria Saporta
The City of Atlanta and top business leaders are working on a concerted effort to steer the redevelopment of the westside of city.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed disclosed Friday morning that a new nonprofit entity will be established – similar to the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership – to help raise foundation and corporate dollars for the rebirth of the Vine City, English Avenue, Atlanta University Campus, Ashview Heights and part of Castleberry Hill.
The mayor announced that news in a briefing with two journalists following a quarterly meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, the group of top-level business leaders who serve as a kitchen cabinet of advisors for Reed and the city.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 20, 2014
A merger between two Atlanta nonprofits dedicated to the advancement of women and girls will create a stronger and more impactful organization in the future, according to leaders of both organizations.
The board of the YWCA of Greater Atlanta on June 17 approved joining forces with Georgia Women for a Change, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization.
By Maria Saporta
When it comes to reducing greenhouse gases to meet future federal standards, Georgia is ahead of the game.
That was the message that Carol Browner, a distinguished senior fellow at American Progress who most recently served as assistant to President Barack Obama and director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, gave Monday to the Rotary Club of Atlanta.
“In Georgia, you are well on your way with your investment in nuclear energy, and your investment in renewables,” Browner said.
By Maria Saporta
As she formally opened the new Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta, former Mayor Shirley Franklin called it “just a step” along the city’s way towards justice and freedom.
“We believe we are just starting,” Franklin told the crowd of hundreds of dignitaries and well-wishers who braved the stifling heat to be part of the historic opening. “Some people see this as an end. We the people who love freedom, as did Nelson Mandela, understand that this is just a step along the way.”
The step, however, was shared by a host of civil rights legends and supporters of Atlanta’s newest destination.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 13, 2014
Georgia’s business history will soon be taking its place alongside the historical markers sprinkled all over the state.
The Georgia Historical Society is launching its board-approved Business History Initiative to fully recognize the contributions that the state’s significant companies have made to the evolution of the South, nationally and globally.
By Maria Saporta
When it comes to the Atlanta Public Schools, the Atlanta business community is staying engaged both with financial and leadership support.
The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta announced Thursday that Atlanta’s corporate donors have committed $200,000 so far to support the transitional phase of incoming Atlanta Public Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Meria Carstarphen.
When that is combined with $147,000 that has been previously raised to support the Atlanta Public Schools’ strategic leadership initiatives, nearly $350,000 has been committed to the APS Improvement Fund.
By Maria Saporta
U.S Bankruptcy Judge Barbara Ellis-Monro Wednesday afternoon approved the $14.6 million sale of Morris Brown College’s property to the City of Atlanta and Friendship Baptist Church.
She also over-ruled the objections filed by Clark-Atlanta University, which had argued that Morris Brown College did not have the right to sell most of the property.
The ruling is a major step that will take Morris Brown College out of bankruptcy, and one that could pave the way for the redevelopment of more than 30 acres of land along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive that is a few blocks west of the new Atlanta Falcons football stadium.
By Maria Saporta
Nearly 1,000 people were drawn to the historic hangars of Delta Air Lines Tuesday morning for the grand re-opening of an improved and expanded Delta Flight Museum.
Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Deal gave their official proclamations and awards in Delta’s honor, which was celebrating its 85th anniversary of offering passenger service. Its first passenger flight was from Dallas to Jackson, Miss. on June 17, 1929.
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta gave the Points of Lights National Conference and its 5,000 attendees a special welcome on Monday.
“I’m so grateful y’all decided to return to the City of Atlanta after seven years,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed told attendees at the plenary session at the Georgia World Congress Center Monday afternoon. “I know I’m a little biased, but I like to call Atlanta the capital city of service.”
Points of Light — formed by a merger of the Points of Light Foundation and the Atlanta-based Hands On Network — calls Atlanta home.
Center for Civil and Human Rights will boost conventions and tourism, serve as a forum for issues such as diversity, human trafficking and oppression
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 13, 2014
As the new Center for Civil and Human Rights prepares for its unveiling on June 23, it already is being woven into the business fabric of Atlanta.
By Maria Saporta
A transformed open and airy office environment has welcomed nearly 2,000 Coca-Cola employees to SunTrust Plaza’s “Garden Offices” in the heart of downtown.
The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) invited members of the board of Central Atlanta Progress to visit the company’s new home for its information technology division. The move came as Coca-Cola consolidated seven offices into five, The move of about 2,000 workers to downtown is viewed as a major boost to downtown.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 6, 2014
Not only did SunTrust Banks CEO Bill Rogers set a record-breaking goal – $9.5 million – for the 2013-2014 Woodruff Arts Center campaign, but Rogers and his campaign team also ended up surpassing it – raising $9.6 million – a historic high for an annual campaign that dates back to 1968, the Woodruff Arts Center told Atlanta Business Chronicle.
By Maria Saporta
After conducting a national search for a new leader, the board of the Georgia Conservancy has selected one of its own to be its new president.
Robert Ramsay, currently the Georgia Conservancy’s vice president of development, has been tapped to succeed former Georgia Lt. Gov. Pierre Howard as the president of the statewide environmental organization on July 1. Howard, who had announced his retirement earlier this year, has been the Conservancy’s president since 2009.
“Robert is a proven leader who has played a vital role in the Georgia Conservancy’s success over the last several years,” said George Mori, chair of the Georgia Conservancy’s board, in a statement.
By Maria Saporta
The $14. 6 million offer from Invest Atlanta and Friendship Baptist Church to buy most of the Morris Brown College property is being held up by an objection from Clark Atlanta University.
During nearly a three-hour hearing before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barbara Ellis Monro Thursday, the arguments circled around whether Morris Brown actually had the right to sell the property it has been using over the decades.
The judge said she will issue her ruling on whether the sale can go through at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 18. If she gives the deal a green light, the Invest Atlanta board would vote the next morning and the sale would be scheduled to close on June 23.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 6, 2014
Sitting with Bernice King in the administrative offices of The King Center, it begins to sink in how heavy a load she is carrying.
She is the CEO of the King Center, which was founded by her mother to preserve the legacy of her father, the late Martin Luther King Jr., the renowned civil rights leader with a national holiday set aside in his honor.
By Maria Saporta
At Aaron’s annual meeting Tuesday morning, one shareholder observed: “If you can’t beat them, join them.”
The newest director elected to the board was Brian Kahn, 40, investment manager of Vintage Capital Management, who tried unsuccessfully to buy the lease-to-own retailer earlier this year with an unsolicited $2.3 billion offer.
Vintage is the second largest shareholder of Aaron’s, owning 10 percent of the company. The largest shareholder is Boston-based FMR LLC, which owns 15.75 percent of the company.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 6, 2014
The two upwardly sweeping panes of curved glass reaching 32 feet into the sky will lift the hearts and minds of visitors approaching the new Center for Civil and Human Rights.
Etched into the two panes of glass are quotes from two internationally renowned leaders — Margaret Mead and Nelson Mandela — and water will ripple down the glass.
